GILPIN- — ON THE FOOD FISHES OF NOVA SCOTIA. 13 



liappen to the batrachians, favour these views, though I do not think 

 we have yet sufficient proof to assert them as facts. 



The membrane half covering the eye is asserted by the fishermen 

 in early spring to cover the whole eye, hence perhaps the story of 

 his blindness. His small and numerous fins, according to the Agas- 

 sian theory, inasmuch as he resembles the embryo of all fishes, which 

 have the fins in one narrow continued band from head to tail, also 

 prove him low in the scale of intelligence. 



He appears on our coast in early spring, according to Martin 

 Harrigan, Halifax fish market, about May 15 ; they are then very 

 thin and lean, and are going eastward, the fishermen observing them 

 passing the harbour. The great body are supposed to spawn some- 

 where to the eastward, but they are never seen like herring during 

 the operation. It is probable they spawn all along our coast, but in deep 

 soundings. During July another run make their appearance, and 

 these the fishermen say are some who have not joined the great 

 spawning schools. About the middle of September they again ap- 

 pear, coming westward ; their spawning now over, they rapidly be- 

 come fat and recruited and remain till the middle of November, 

 when they disappear. Thus from the middle of May to the middle 

 of November they are upon the surface. For the remainder of the 

 year they are hid from us. 



Our coast trending' north-east and south-west, the terms east- 

 ward and westward, must be taken as meaning north and south. 

 Thus the spring opens earlier to the westward, the season is ad- 

 vanced, and the rivers westward are open and free from ice before 

 the eastern. Salmon, herring and gaspereaux make their appear- 

 ance in the Bay of Fundy — at Annapolis first, then at Yarmouth, 

 Gold River, Chester, azid are taken earlier at Halifax than at Cape 

 Breton and Canseau. It would seem that as the sun leaves his 

 "winter quarters and low circle on the southern horizon and com- 

 mences to form his great northern round, he is followed north by 

 the great marine armies surrounding our coast, which ascend to the 

 surface to luxuriate in the calm and warming waters, and to approach 

 our shores. Of the cod family alone w^e know the winter quarters. 

 All winter long they are taken 10 to 15 miles seaward in about 80 

 fathoms sounding. Of the rest, with the exception of the herring, 

 which winter in the deep land-locked bays of Newfoundland, and 

 2* 



